October

Let’s talk about blogs and RSS feeds. It might have more relevance than you think.

If you’re like most people, most of your web surfing time is spent visiting the same few web sites every day. That might start with news pages and weather, then a few pages that are updated frequently with items that interest you. […] continued “KEEPING UP WITH BLOGS”

In Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard,” this is the image used to represent each Windows computer on a network. It’s an old CRT monitor displaying a Blue Screen Of Death, the screen that Windows 98 displays after a hardware failure or catastrophic driver crash forces the computer to shut down unexpectedly. […] continued “APPLE DOES A FUNNY”

The nonstop criticism of Vista has been getting me down, and Apple’s release of Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” has been greeted with so much overhyped enthusiasm that I began to wonder if I was missing something.

As always, what’s missing from the Apple hype is perspective.

Mac OS 10.5 is a fine operating system, with several incremental improvements over Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger,” although even the most ardent Mac fans are a little embarrassed over the list of “300 new features,” which adoringly describes really, really trivial changes. […] continued “LEOPARD VS. VISTA”

You can send e-mail messages and have them show up as a text message on an SMS-enabled phone, if you know the cell phone carrier used by the recipient. Here’s a list that may come in handy, courtesy of a post on the QuarterToThree forums:

The Google Maps team put together this list of maps that have information about the devastating fires in Southern California. According to the Los Angeles Times, almost a million people have been evacuated as of Wednesday night. We hope for everyone’s safety and a quick end to this tragedy.

For some reason Verizon has not attempted to generate any excitement about the new Samsung i760 cell phone/PDA, even though it looks very nice and perhaps is even a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Why is Apple the only company that knows how to market successfully?

The i760 was demonstrated briefly at a trade show early in 2007 and got a bit of attention online, but no information was forthcoming about its release date. […] continued “SAMSUNG i760”

Advocates of “network neutrality” have trouble conveying the real world implications of an arcane-sounding technical issue. Two items in the news help illustrate why it’s an issue to fight about.

“Network neutrality” is the underlying principle of the Internet as we know it – generally, the idea that all bits of data are treated equally, unaffected by the various companies involved in carrying the traffic from one place or another. […] continued “BITTORRENT & BAGGAGE NEUTRALITY”

Microsoft has an appealing new program for displaying and sharing your photos. There is no shortage of photo programs and online services, but if you haven’t committed to any of them yet, Windows Live Photo Gallery looks like a reasonable place to start.

There’s some evidence that Windows has become secure enough that the bad guys that write viruses and rootkits and phishing attacks are looking elsewhere.

It’s anecdotal so far and the defenders of other OSes will find other explanations, but the idea makes sense. In fact, Windows defenders have long said that attackers would move on as soon as other OSes were easier to attack than Windows, and as soon as they became more popular. […] continued “HACKERS MOVING AWAY FROM WINDOWS”

Careful observation of that rule has allowed Internet newsgroups to avoid getting involved in the entertainment industry’s freakish litigation war on its customers. Now a new lawsuit suggests that the RIAA can’t stand it any more.

LogMeIn Free is a completely free service that gives you remote access to your home or office computer, any time, from anywhere.

Remote access services run software on your home or office computer that discreetly maintains a connection with the online servers run by that service. When you’re at another computer, you browse to the service’s web site and log in with a name and a password. […] continued “LOGMEIN FREE”

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